Cardinal Jozef Tomko, president of the Pontifical Council for International Eucharistic Congresses and Benedict XVI’s special envoy, presided Wednesday at the opening Mass of the Eucharistic Congress at the Catholic University of St. Anthony of Murcia.
«For the first time,» he said, «the Church wants to take the Eucharist in such a singular manner to the university world, where the future of society is forged, because there cannot be a future worthy of man without the presence of God, of Christ.»
The monastery of the Jeronimos, headquarters of the university, was the site of the opening of the congress whose theme is «The Eucharist, Heart of Christian Life and Source of the Evangelizing Mission of the Church.»
The university’s president, José Luis Mendoza, described the congress as «an unprecedented event.»
«The Eucharist is the center» of life, Mendoza said, and therefore «the pivot around which our university turns.» He said that a Catholic university is based on «innovation and evangelization, … quality teaching, … quality research … [and] a search for the truth revealed by Christ.»
The congress ends Sunday.
